A Self Directed IRA or Solo 401k can hold real estate as an investment.

Why does this make sense, or what would be the benefit?

In short, your retirement account balance can grow as it collects rent, and if the property appreciates in value, you could sell it down the road for a gain.

There are restrictions and regulations that you need to follow.

Number one: You cannot live in the property.

Number two: You cannot repair the property; you must contract out the work.

Basically, be sure that you, personally, are not receiving benefits or doing work for the property.

Naturally you will want to remember the rules of Prohibited Transactions – don’t break them.

You will want to think about the ramifications of Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) if you use a Self Directed IRA. UDFI, Unrelated Debt Financed Income, is a component of UBIT, and applies to IRA income generated by financial assets.

A Solo 401k has the added benefit of not being subject to UDFI or UBIT.

Describing UDFI will be a subject of an entire blog; for now, just remember that it exists, and inquire with your accountant if you are on the verge of purchasing property within you IRA.

I have heard so much misinformation on offshore accounts and “tax evasion” over the last week, that I felt the need to clarify and give some truths.

Truth number one: The United States taxes its citizens regardless of where the money was made.

Truth number two: It is much harder and much more expensive to open a bank account in a country labeled a tax haven.

Truth number Three: There are reasons other than money laundering and tax evasion to have money in a country other than the United States.

Truth number four: The U.S. government is in bed with the U.S. media.

Truth number five: The U.S. government is filled with rich people.

Truth number six: The U.S. government is also in bed with large corporations.

What to these truths logically lead to:

The U.S. government is telling its citizens, through its media division, that only rich people and terrorists keep money offshore.

This leads us to the lies:

If you have money offshore, you are rich and/or a terrorists.

The only reason people have money offshore is for money laundering or tax evasion.

Of course both of these things are lies. Most people who have money offshore are not either terrorists or fabulously wealthy.

There simply are not terabytes worth of fabulously rich people and terrorists.

The United States and England are the destinations of choice for laundering money and tax evasion.

That is fact; look it up.

So, if you open your eyes to reality and facts, you can easily decipher that the government, through their propaganda arm, are dispensing lies to distract and leverage the current fear and anger of the populace towards the rich people and terrorists to clamp down and take even more freedoms. They will once again get people to beg to take away their freedoms, in the name of “transparency” and “safety”.

Already, I have seen the protests in Europe. Sad.

If you have ever considered moving some money offshore to real banks, that offer security, diversification, actual interest, and some protection from litigation, you’d better act fast. It is clear that the big banks want to consolidate all of your money into their crooked institutions.

I guarantee, right now, that there will be investigations, and committees, and other B.S. that creates a new panel, and then new prohibitive laws to restrict money movement. Currency controls anyone? Count on it.

The Panama Papers. This is an interesting developing story. Many people’s initial reaction will be that of surprise. Frankly, I’m surprised that people are surprised – wait, no I’m not. For anybody in the financial world, this is a Duh moment. Of course rich people are hiding money offshore. These people are either smart, or have smart people working for them who manage their money and know that American and Western European banks (most, not all) are bunk. The banks that most people keep their money in are under capitalized (that means that they don’t have your money). Not only that, but they are under insured for loss (remember the bailouts). These big banks are also corrupt as hell (see 2008).

If I had millions or billions of dollars, I’d keep them offshore as well. In fact, I recommend that everyone have an offshore account in a “tax haven”. These banks in so called tax havens actually pay interest! What a novel idea!

Also, living in an extremely litigious country like the good old US of A, I am forever fighting the statistical probability that I will be sued for offending a field mouse with hateful rhetoric.

Money kept offshore can be made harder to get by the blood sucking lawyers. It is a good insurance policy.

All that being said, I hope that the big dog criminals and politicians get locked up (but I know that will not happen).

CNN, FBN, FOX, CNBC, and The Guardian will all report this story; they will follow it for a few weeks, and then it will fade away.

All too often I am approached by people who have never heard of a self directed IRA or a Solo 401k. These people are usually skeptical that they can use these plans or they may even question their existence.

While these retirement plan options have existed for many years, most people have never heard of them.

The reason is simple:

Large institutional investment banks will lose money when you manage your own retirement account.

When you set up a self directed retirement account, you take over the helm and make the investment choices that are in your best interest. You are no longer limited to a menu of investments offered by a particular investment bank.

With a Solo 401k, your choices are particularly powerful. Not only does it open up your options, but it also eliminates the middle man completely. There is no custodian needed with a Solo 401k; no permission to ask. You invest in anything allowed by the IRS, which includes pretty much anything other than insurance or collectibles.

Longboat Retirement Solutions can help you set up a Solo 401k quickly and painlessly.

Transferring your money out of a big bank IRA or 401k into a self directed account is not a taxable transaction, and there are no penalties.

Goldman Sachs has made a move into the fast-growing world of “robo” investment, buying Honest Dollar, a start-up which aims to make it quicker and simpler to set up savings accounts for retirement.

Goldman’s new business is distinct from firms such as Wealthfront and Betterment, the biggest automated investment companies, which manage pots of cash according to customers’ stated goals and risk appetites. Honest Dollar, launched a year ago in Austin, Texas, does not select portfolios itself but charges a per-month, per-user fee for setting up and maintaining retirement accounts which are managed by Vanguard, the fund manager with $US3.3 trillion in assets.

Honest Dollar declines to provide numbers on how many users it has, but says it is targeting the roughly 45 million Americans – freelancers and small-business owners – who do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.

The size of the acquisition, made through Goldman’s investment management division, was undisclosed.

“We’re trying something very new and innovative, and we love the validation [from Goldman],” said William Hurley, Honest Dollar’s chief executive. “Goldman did an incredible amount of work, putting in the effort of understanding what we are.”

A recent surge of private investment in financial technology companies has prompted the biggest banks in the US to consider whether they would rather buy, build or partner to keep pace with the newcomers.

Goldman, which prides itself on its vast team of software engineers, has mostly bought or built, last year launching an internal venture to challenge the likes of Lending Club in loans to consumers and small businesses. It is also a driving force behind Symphony, a big consortium of financial services firms aiming to unseat Bloomberg from its dominant position in messaging.

“Honest Dollar has created a simple solution to a complex retirement savings problem,” said Timothy O’Neill and Eric Lane, co-heads of Goldman’s investment management division, in a statement. “Together, we have the potential to help millions of people achieve their investing goals.”

Mr Hurley, 44, who prefers to go by the name “Whurley”, pursued a career as a bassist in a funk band before a serious car accident sparked an interest in computing. He worked at Apple, IBM and Symbiot before founding his own design firm, Chaotic Moon Studios, in 2010. He left the company – which was sold to Accenture last year – in 2014 to co-found Honest Dollar.

He launched his latest venture about a year ago in Austin at South by Southwest, an annual set of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences. By then he had raised $US3 million of seed funding, including a personal investment from Vikram Pandit, the former chief executive of Citigroup.

Honest Dollar, which now has 30 staff, will stay in Austin and operate as part of Goldman’s investment management division.

“As a software person, this is my first foray into financial services, but Goldman has a 100-plus year history and a lot of the brightest minds in this space,” said Mr Hurley. “So far we’ve built this on our own; imagine what we can do with access to that data.”

Financial Times

My thoughts on this transaction:

The tentacles grow. This is probably the first time in history that the word “honest” has been used in the same sentence as Goldman. Buyer beware.